Collum Short Stories
By Faye Collum Fairley
James S. A. Collum was born on May 22, 1808, in Georgia. When James was 24 years old, he started his family with the beauty he couldn’t live without. Mary Eralee and James soon increased Georgia’s citizens by 12 lively children.
James married his second wife in 1856. Her name was Patience Sessions. With Patience, James fathered four more children.
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This fact gives us a timeline on the death of his first wife Mary Eralee. Her youngest son was born in 1854. It is only speculation, but she could have died in childbirth, or shortly after from complications. Little Jason was only three years old when James S A and Patience had their first child in 1857.
The youngest of Mary Eralee’s and James S A was Jason. In 1870 Jason died at age 16. The only document on this was a Texas Mortality Schedule Index. The only explanation was “skull fracture”. His employment was listed as “farm laborer” This is an indication of how early the men matured and started work during that time.
There are three sets of twins in his gigantic family. The 1840 federal census report showed a lady between 30 & 40, but there was no name on the document for her. I could not locate a federal census for 1850. It’s possible that the family changed locations while the census reports were being conducted. That is only speculation.
The Census report for 1860 shows that James S A Collum was living with his wife, Patience Sessions, along with eleven of his children. Patience was the mother of the two youngest children.
It’s really true that a lot can happen in ten years. By the time the 1870 census report was made, James S. A. Collum was living in Tallapoosa County AL with his youngest seven children, and no wife.
James S. A. Collum died on February 25, 1876, in Montgomery County, Arkansas, at the age of 67.
